Recent Posts

Holy Crap — ‘Zep’ Is Serious?

Holy Crap — ‘Zep’ Is Serious?

Initially I just chalked up the “Zep touring without Plant” talk as rumor. I mean, can you imagine? (I’m searching for an analogy here, but I can’t find one. Maybe it would be like Queen, with Freddie still alive (God bless him) taking a long hiatus and then suddenly touring with another singer. Or maybe […]

October 31, 2008 | By | 1 Reply More
How To Get Hand Tone?

How To Get Hand Tone?

I just read an article on Gibson.com about Stevie Ray’s tone. The headline starts with these words: Myth Busters. I assume that’s because the overall point of the piece is that Stevie’s gear wasn’t cut and dried, particularly on the amp side, so his tone being a direct function of his equipment is a bit […]

October 30, 2008 | By | 2 Replies More
On the Other Hand/Finger

On the Other Hand/Finger

On the subject of switching your picking from thumb/forefinger to thumb/first two fingers — well, you can go the other way too. Paul Gilbert used to play with two fingers and a thumb, but switched to thumb/forefinger, apparently just to get a cooler, cello-like pick attack — and because of a little thumb pain.

October 22, 2008 | By | Reply More
Attack of the Pick

Attack of the Pick

Years ago I was watching a Steve Morse instructional video (yes, on VHS) in which he talked about how he holds his pick. Specifically, if I remember right, he holds it with his thumb and first two fingers — contrary to the grip 99% of people seem to use, which is thumb and first (pointer) […]

October 20, 2008 | By | 3 Replies More
Ed the Force Is

Ed the Force Is

Today I was going to write something about Yngwie getting a bad rap or maybe start looking into how Skynyrd got such great tones out of Peavey amps, but instead ran into this quote on the Van Halen News Desk. It’s from an interview with EVH’s guitar tech Tom Weber, who was on his maiden […]

October 13, 2008 | By | Reply More
Zep x 75% + Kennedy = Tour?

Zep x 75% + Kennedy = Tour?

According to Gibson.com via this gossip blog, Led Zep may tour minus, without, not including — Robert Plant. Plant’s replacement may be Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge. What?!

October 13, 2008 | By | 2 Replies More
Gary Moore’s ‘Edge’ Tone

Gary Moore’s ‘Edge’ Tone

Like all good tone-chasers, Gary Moore has been all over the map, albeit a fairly narrow map. I won’t pretend to know a lot about Gary Moore — he’s from one of those islands over yonder, right? — but I do know WoodyTone when my ears hear it. And killer playing. Today I was listening […]

October 9, 2008 | By | Reply More
Basswood? Anyone?

Basswood? Anyone?

Can anyone get woodytone out of a solid basswood guitar body? Or is this just the worst guitar wood ever? Here’s my ear experience with it. 1. Not even the great EVH can get a true woodytone out of basswood, though he has come close on stage with the EVH Art Series Charvels.

October 3, 2008 | By | 3 Replies More
X and X Live

X and X Live

I was fortunate that a friend got tix to last night’s King’s X/Extreme (in that order) show at NYC’s Fillmore Irving Plaza. Follow is my “review” — just my experience, really — but the bottom line was that both bands were very good. King’s X opened and they were awesome as usual. What a great, […]

August 5, 2008 | By | Reply More
Bye Mel

Bye Mel

Mel Galley of Whitesnake fame died on the 1st. He died of cancer, knew he was going out soon, and handled it like we all probably wish we would in the same circumstances: fearlessly and at peace. He was 60 years old, and in my opinion is responsible for one of the woodiest and well-recorded […]

July 5, 2008 | By | Reply More
Journey. Yes, Journey.

Journey. Yes, Journey.

I’m talking about the pre-Faithfully, pre-uber-ballad Journey, which toed the line between old-school rock, blues and just a little pop. To this day, Departure is one of my favorite albums — uh, CDs. The guitar work is great (Neal Schon, of course), the keyboards are great (Gregg Rolie — great), the vocal melodies are great, […]

June 19, 2008 | By | Reply More
A Sofa, Chair and a Fish

A Sofa, Chair and a Fish

Here he is, the master of tone who articulated it so well: “They go to 11.” Learn from Nigel’s tone lab. Look at all the movies they made sequels (and multiple sequels) to. Doesn’t Tap deserve another? Don’t we deserve another? Funny Stuff

June 12, 2008 | By | 1 Reply More
Scholz: One Amp No Good?

Scholz: One Amp No Good?

Does Boston’s Tom Scholz have WoodyTone? Remember, we’re not talking about the songs here. We’re talking about his Les Paul >> NASA effects rack >> Marshall tone — though Marshalls are only used in the studio. Otherwise it’s all Rockman stuff. Anyhow, it’s the NASA part that might drop him out of the WoodyTone pantheon. […]

June 11, 2008 | By | 1 Reply More
Seymour Duncan On…

Seymour Duncan On…

Not much, it turns out. You can usually count on PremierGuitar.com to find some cool stuff. Recently they posted four vids of Seymour Duncan talking about various things. Going from top to bottom, the first one is interesting if you want to know about how Seymour got into winding pickups. The second one doesn’t have […]

June 10, 2008 | By | Reply More
Walsh All Funked Up

Walsh All Funked Up

I’ve started looking into Tommy Bolin. I’ve heard the name for years, but never looked into him. Still haven’t much, but when researching Bolin on YouTube, I found out that he must have replaced Joe Walsh in the James Gang, and my reaction was: Wait a minute. Joe Walsh? James Gang? There HAD to be […]

June 5, 2008 | By | Reply More